i've never played GW1, so this question isn't intended to sound sarcastic at all. was GW1 as good as it ended up being right from the start, or did it take a while to get there? i'm just curious, because i see people saying GW1 was so good at such and such, but GW2 is still bad in such and such way.

of course, you could say that if certain things were already in a game x amount of years ago, then why couldn't they also have them in this game at launch, which i would agree with. i just hope they bring back some of the awesome sounding ideas from GW1 into this game, because i want more fun content that won't lose its luster so quickly, especially on the PvE side of things.

Gw1 took a loooooooooooong time to get all the stuff people say is 'awesome endgame'.

I'm starting to loose a little bit of faith in Anet.
There must be an awful lot of miscommunications going on since they announce things like the precursor scavenger hunt and then wait a month before letting people know that it isn't even something that is being worked on >.> (personally don't care because a legendary is the furtherest thing from my mind).

I just feel like they've gone a bit backwards since released. They did an amazing job of letting the community know about things before and shortly after release. I really think they need to start up with that kind of transparency again. I'm also for small consistent updates, it's getting a little annoying the way they seem so reluctant to release anything in any way other than a large patch release.

This is something that existed prior to ascended gear, and was something that we saw happen all the time in GW1, even without any sort of gear progression. Some players, typically people who play the game a lot, tend to only want to play with other players that play like them. They require some sort of proof to get into their party, whether it be displaying your Lightbringer Title, equipping or linking some type of gear, or using some other method of showing that you have already done and are experienced with the content. While ascended gear might be the new excuse, this behavior happens regardless.

While this is not really something that we want to encourage, players do have the choice to play the game in the way they want. We can’t force those players to be all-inclusive in who they invite to the parties they create, and to be honest, doing so would probably make people even more unhappy than they are now, and lead to a lot of undesirable behavior.

tldr; people are going to do this anyway, we dont't want to encourage it, but we can't control how people react to content.

Quote

The Agony mechanic wasn’t introduced at the start of the dungeon so that everybody can experience the content. While one of the goals of the Fractals of the Mists dungeon was to provide some difficult content for players looking for a challenge, we also wanted the dungeon to be available for everybody to experience. While getting far into the dungeon requires agony resistance from ascended gear, the content was designed to provide challenging content, and to allow players to choose what difficulty they wanted to play at.

As for ascended gear, to reiterate what Chris has said (https://forum-en.gui...Chris-Whiteside), it’s not intended as a treadmill, but rather as a tier of rewards that can help bridge the gap between Exotics (a few hours of effort to acquire a piece) and Legendaries (hundreds of hours of effort to acquire one). They’re currently only available in the Fractals of the Mist Dungeon, but we’re going to be adding new ways to acquire them, both inside of WvW as well as elsewhere in PvE.

tldr; we want everyone to experience content... Now watch as I reference Whiteside's post without telling you why Ascended gear needed to have more stats than Exotic/Current Legendaries, and tell you there is no gear treadmill...

What I found, as a casual player, was that the game kept me in one area for a hell of a long time. Monotony and repetition set in very quickly, doing the same damn heart events (basically just traditional quests without the pick-ups or turn-ins) day in, day out, in the same area, with the same visual style, and ....

...This is all very subjective.
....

One area?

To the thread starter:
At level 1, you already have 5 full maps to explore as you wish, one starting zone per race accessible by

- locating your capital city's asura gate to Lion's Arch (giant round purple stargate portal).
- port through it and use the corresponding portal from Lion's Arch to any of the other capital cities of other races of your choice.
- find your way through the city to the start zone of that race.

All five maps are as different as it can get, tropical jungles for one, rolling plains in another, snowy alpine highlands... fantasy fey forests...country farmlands...

That's not even including the 5 entire capital cities no less unique.

Nor does it count the spvp maps you can choose to join at any lvl.

There are various zones you could choose from at subsequent higher lvls as well. Personally I took 3 months to hit max level and am still not yet done exploring the lower lvl zones.

If you feel adventurous and think you could handle zones higher than your lvl, no one is stopping you from trying. I was doing lvl 24 heart quests at lvl 7, for example, simply because I stumbled into the zone by accident.

And then there's yet another 4 full map sized zones in world vs world which you also can join at any lvl, if you want a break at anytime from pve.

Having said that, yes GW2 seems to have lost over half its population since launch. There's nothing in this game that makes you want to keep playing it. The only people still playing are the ones who play extremely slow (who try to say they're playing at a normal speed any everyone else is too fast as if being better at a game/having more free time is a bad thing lol) and haven't hit the content limit yet. There's a huge content gap between getting full exotics (crafting/dungeons) and getting a Legendary weapon.

There's really nothing inbetween besides insane amounts of grind that no one wants to do once they realize how many months it will take you if you didn't cash in on the previous exploits/pre-dungeon DR runs. Anyone who says otherwise is either in denial or hasn't realized the truth yet (either due to ignorance or otherwise).

PvP/WvW is pretty mundane if you play it regularly. It's not bad, but it's not that interesting either. WvW is a pretty big goldsink if played properly as well (ignoring the Commander icon, you'll spend tons on siege equipment/upgrading defenses/equipment repairs/etc.) which forces you to grind PvE some more. It's all 1 big grind, which is normally fine because that's what MMORPGs are in the end, but they made the mistake of not making it fun/not giving you enough incentive to grind.

I've been bored for a while and my guild just dissolved yesterday, so I dunno how much longer I'll bother playing myself.

Well, I can appreciate the efficiency of a controversial post that pre-emptively states that people who disagree are wrong.

When someone says that in their opinion the Earth is flat, you don't nod along and tell them that they are entitled to their opinion. You call them an idiot. Coincidentally, that's also what you do with the posts about how GW2 is dead.

But for all those elitists there are just as many people that would take anyone really. As long as people actually listen.
There are still loads of groups in GW that takes along anyone as long as they at least have basic knowledge of the game.

Not true at all.
In FoW they're all looking for -insert weird codename for role- or otherwise very specific profession setups.
In UW they're all looking for players with -insert massive amount of whatever stones-
In DoA they're all looking for players running -insert cookie-cutter build- and nothing else.

With the press of a button turn Guild Wars 2 into a true action experience. It displays a centered crosshair (23 available in 1.0, with adjustable positions) and moving the mouse now turns your character and camera. When ever you cast a spell or action it will temporarily lock on and perform on whatever is underneath the crosshair. Left Click auto attacks, Right Click dodges & Mouse Scroll can be assigned to whatever you want. (all can be changed) Your movement and targeting will be as intuitive, fluid and accurate as an FPS Bringing up panels such as Inventory, Map, Hero, etc will toggle you out of combat mode and give you your cursor back.Video Demo of 1.0[3]Lugos mini preview[4] (of beta 0.2, lots of bugs fixed since then)Features:

Seamless intergration with GW2. Opening panels such as Inventory and Hero Panel will switch you out of Combat Mode

What else is Combat Mode useful for:Disabilities & Injuries (such as missing fingers, RSI, Carpell Tunnel): There is no need to hold Right Click any more. Adds 4 easy to press keys to the mouse. (+12 modifiers) Adds an easy to press key to the keyboard.Vision Impairment: The default cursor can be hard to see in the midst of combat (even for people with unimpaired vision). Combat Mode always sets the cursor to the centre of the screen, with the option to display large and bright crosshairs.Xpadder / Game Pads: Combat Mode is the perfect solution for people who use gamepads. Simply select a button to be your Combat Mode "Toggle" key and away you go.

Combat Mode is still in development. 1.1 will have almost identical features, but with a few extra things to made the mod easier to use. Including, 60+ crosshairs, User interface to adjust crosshair and keybinds, and bug fixes.

lol @ 'zergfest' in WvW. WvW is, in a word, war. You're freakin' laying siege to keeps. Numerical superiority is one of the oldest and most reliable military tactics. There's no way to prevent players from stacking numbers for the win without absurd, artificial restrictions. I'd prefer ANet go in the other direction entirely - I want more people in WvW. Queues are lame; epic battles are epic.

If you want quaint chivalrous battles, that's what structured PVP is for. Alternatively, form a small group, learn how to rotate camera and shout out contacts, and hit camps. It's relatively easy to find action outside the main forces, while avoiding said main forces.